SOA: Is it just another buzz word

It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.
~Charles Darwin

If you don't like something change it; if you can't change it, change the way you think about it. ~Mary Engelbreit

Since, I've been doing only non technical blog.... I thought maybe I'll do a technical blog for a change.. hey, maybe my hit ratio might increase ... after all they don't need to come to my site to read just another stupid review on the latest movie!!!

Service Oriented Architecture popularly known as SOA has been making its buzz around for a while IT and corporate circles. Is it just another buzz word.. that people will forget in a year or two. Maybe yes, Maybe No; but SOA certainly promises to be the direction in which technology is headed.

What is SOA?
SOA is a collection of services that can be attributed back to business processes. These could be mutually exclusive calls having no realtions to each other but might follow the workflow in a particular scenario.
SOA is an architecture that aims at unifying business processes from a business perspective rather than what the techonologists think it should be. It structures large and complex application as ad-hoc chunks of small services.
SOA does not seem to have an exact definition which leads to the assumption that SOA is just another term for web services. Well, to a certain extent purley from a techincal aspect, I guess that's true.

How does it work?
SOA works on the basic integration framework. It advocates to be a loosely coupled integration although it can be a tightly coupled integration. The best of SOA can be leveraged when it is in a publish subscribe mode where we have a Service Provider, a broker and a requestor.
This also helps for the fact that if yet another external service requires the details of the service in question. It can subscribe to this service. This will not involve any changes on the host but only the changes on the requestor.
Although SOA can be implemented using SOAP, DCOM, CORBA etc.. the best in todays world is the web services. The WSDL breaks it down to a format that can be consumed by any language. So it does not matter whether your requestor is going to be on a .Net framework or a J2E framework.

Why SOA?
SOA is not a new invention or a revolution. It's just the evolution of services structured around business needs. The world has changed from choas to structured. It went from HTML to XML to WSDL on Protocols and from COM/DCOM to corba to SOA
This promises to be the cost effective way in this constantly changing and highly demanding market condition. SOA's guides its principles on Re-usability, modularity, encapsulation, efficient use of system resources and EAI.

What are the challenges that it would have?
As this becomes more technology centric, security would be a major concern especially if the broker is on a public domain.
A lot of buzz around reduced TCO maynot show up immediately making it difficult to justify the cost benefits.
As this could end up being a series of disparate systems calling each other, debugging an issue in production maynot be easy.
Infrastructure costs on maintaining system test and development environments would high, if we want to maintain exact replicas.
Performance of one system (especially older systems) could impact the overall performance in the workflow of the application. This could lead to a perception that the perception of the current system is bad although the issue lies with the legacy systems.

To conclude, SOA has been gaining grounds in its power to define business services and operating models and deliver IT against actual business requirements and adapt itself closer to the current business process.

The only thing certain in life is death and Change.
-Anon

Winds of Change

“Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way in the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever widening thought and action....
into that heaven of freedom, my father, let my country awake.”
- Rabindranath Tagore.

As India gets into it's 60th year of independence, the country seems to be basking in the attention it is getting in the world press. It's no longer a country of snake charmers and the elephants; Where we stand today is on a promising path to glory.

A look at the 60 years shows the success of democracy, the worlds largest democracy has stayed well and prospered; except for the few weeks of emergency, thanks to Indira Gandhi and her ego.

The last 20 years has seen more progress than we have in the first 40 years. But let's look at some of the intiatives that took us to where we stand today.

The Greeen Revolution during the 60's focussed om increasing the productivity of the farm sector. Being an agrarian economy, it is important for us to improve the productivity and the quality of the food grains. The era concentrated at increasing the productivity, there were a lot of subsidies given on the fertilizers and on hybrid grain seeds. These helped us improve our output and took care of our food deficit. A lot of these subsidies have still stayed on over the decades.

The Industrialization era led by Nehru's vision focused on the core industries. The govt invested in steel, iron and coal plants which provided a lot of employment as well as helped us in improving the infrastructure of the country. As part of this, ports were created and shipping saw a huge growth.

Malnutrition was another big problem on the growing nation. The govt health agencies took the help of the media to advertise this. I remember the ad's 'Dudh dudh.. piyo glass full' as well as 'Sunday ho ya Monday.. roz khao ande' so that the children had more protien rich food. Dr Verghese Kurien who started Amul was a pioneer in this revolution where he created a co-operative society and made a organized society out of the predominently small farm owners. Amul since then has grown leap and bounds.

The telecom revolution was another huge bridge that gapped the divide between the Urban and Rural communication. The telephone exhanges where formed on small EPABX systems and they linked it down to the ubiquotous local STD/PCO booths.Sam Pitroda's vision got us connected much faster than the prior di-da-di-da telegrams. The second wave of this was the mobile revolution where the mobile service providers have been expanding thier network and the bandwidth.

While all these efforts earlier were concentrated in improving the domestic industries, the vision that brought us into the competetive world was the opening up of our economy in 91. Dr Manmohan Singh's vision fully supported by the late Narsimha Rao govt. launched us into the global arena. Our economy till then followed the commie pattern of state owned enterprise. The opening up of economy promoted the private enterprise. It promoted and rewarded entrepreneurship; increased our exports and brought us on to level fields of global competition.

The Technology revolution which was envisioned by visionaries like Dr Homi baba, Prof Yash Pal, Dr Abdul kalam and Dr Kasturi Ranganathan was what aided the revolution in all other areas. Dr Baba's conceptualization of atomic energy for peaceful purposes and the satellite designed under Prof Yash pal aided the telecon revolution.

The opening up of the economy brought us into the upcoming technology which was the software revolution. Though we got out there as cheap coders for y2K issue, we have since grown up the value chain and are today providing software solution. TCS, Infosys, Wipro and the likes are competing hand to hand with the global vendors. The whoz who of techonoly companies like IBM, HP, Capgemini, Accenture and the others have opened up shops in India and have been growing thier headcount by the day. This industry has gorwn from $0 to a $30 billion industry today and has provided jobs to the millions of youth.

Gone are those days when we used to gather to watch the news on DD at 8:30 followed by serials like yeh jo hai zindagi and Nukkad. Today, you have the choice of over a 100 channels most of them serving niche areas. This has given a big boost to journalism, film making, acting and other associated industires.


While these things have bought us to where we are today; the future looks very bright for the Gen X. We seem to have the largest youth in the world. The education system has been churning out resources educated in niche areas. We have seen a lot of entrepreunial spirit in upcoming industries where we are competing head on head with the developed countries. This includes IT, Biotech, R&D, etc...

What we need at this is for the govt. to provide the kind of frame work that would facilitate further growth in economy. This includes:
Better policies to help entrepreneurship, promote business and ease the export/import process.
A stable govt. that works for a common cause for the growth of the country than thier own agendas.
Better law & Order that would give a sense of security to the citizens of India.
Better healthcare for the general public. The govt. hospitals that are set-up for the lower middle class and lower does not have good hygiene or basic facilities. This needs to be improvised.
Better insurance or social security for the people of India
Promote new areas that has a lot of potential. THis includes sports, tourism etc... India has good potential for tourism, it needs to be harnessed better. Sports is still treated as hobby than a career choice. For a country with over a billion people, we do not have enough representation in the olympics or the Asian meet. While we have the one off like Rana, Sania and Anand.. there's a lot more potential for these areas.
The infrastructure needs to be improvised that would include road, train, air, ports, telephone infrastructure...
Technocrats and beaurocrats who can take us thr'the next phase of revolutions.
Less of stupid politicians with a dozen criminal cases against them who only care about making money.

You can check out the 2020 vision that Kalam has laid out for India. I have it on my earlier blog on Kalam.

In a nutshell, things have not been better for us to play on a level playing ground. It's out for our generation to get out there and rule the world. India rocks :)

vande mātaram
sujalāṃ suphalāṃ malayajaśītalām
sasya śyāmalāṃ mātaram
śubhra jyotsnā pulakita yāminīm
phulla kusumita drumadalaśobhinīm
suhāsinīṃ sumadhura bhāṣiṇīm
sukhadāṃ varadāṃ mātaram

Ab Tera Kya Hoga Kaaliya

A classic dialog from Sanju baba's Naam: Yeh One way street hain; yahan sab aate apne marzi se hain par jaate Don ki marzi se.

The controversy of the Dawood and the confusion within the D gang seems to be getting interesting by the day.
It all started when Dawoods men heard strange voices taking the Bhai's phone and asking for thier name n number so that Bhai could call back. This led to the speculation that Dawood, Tiger Memon and Chotta Shakeel were in the hands of ISI while Anees is on the run.

Then the ISI denied this and said Dawood was in Kazakhistan. The kahakiztan embassy has vehemently refuted this as a media coverage with no substantial evidence.
For quite a few years now India has been claiming that Dawood has a house in Dubai (surprisngly called the White house) and one in karachi where is based in. He is supposed to be operating from karachi as well as from North Wazaristan on the border.
Pakistan has been refuting India's claim of Dawoods existence in Pakistan.
This certainly seems to be an ISI operation, as President Musharraf would not like Dawood to be caught in pakistan if there is any huge lockdown on the terrorists as his words are at stake.

This could go many ways:
ISI might move him out of Pakistan to a safer haven and refute that he ever came to Pak.
ISI could eliminate him and take over all his property and bank balance in pakistan.
They would not want to hand him alive to the Interpol, Indian agencies or the US forces as he holds the key to a lot of political activities including the Mumbai Bomb blasts that led to his exodus.
To a large extent the Indian politicians may not want him to be captured as he could disclose a lot of political nexus with the underworld.

RAW and IB can only hope to get more info on his possibility of still being alive and how his operations would go.
This certainly could be a big blow to the Mumbai underworld as it could now dis-integrate as each of his lieutenant tries to build thier own gangs and territory.
But as for the Bhai, Ab tera kya hoga kaaliya!!!!

One slip
- Pink Floyd

A restless eye across a weary room
a glazed look and I was on the road to ruin
the music played and played as we whirled without end
no hint, no word her honour to defend

I will, I will, she sighed to my request
and then she tossed her mane while my resolve was put
to the test
then drowned in desire, our souls on fire
I led the way to the funeral pyre
and without a thought of the consequence
I gave in to my decadence

one slip, and down the hole we fall
it seems to take no time at all
a momentary lapse of reason
that binds a life for life
a small regret, you won't forget
there'll be no sleep in here tonight

was it love, or was it the idea of being in love?
or was it the hand of fate, that seemed to fit just
like a glove?
the moment slipped by and soon the seeds were sown
the year grew late and neither one wanted to remain
alone

one slip, and down the hole we fall
it seems to take no time at all
a momentary lapse of reason
that binds a life to a life
the one regret, you will never forget
there'll be no sleep in here tonight
one slip...one slip...

No Remorse

Peace, in the sense of the absence of war, is of little value to someone who is dying of hunger or cold. It will not remove the pain of torture inflicted on a prisoner of conscience. It does not comfort those who have lost their loved ones in floods caused by senseless deforestation in a neighboring country. Peace can only last where human rights are respected, where the people are fed, and where individuals and nations are free
- HH Dalai Lama

While the court has given it's verdict on a lot of people associated with the Mumbai Blasts in '92/93, has justice been served for the victims of the blasts.
The people who have been convicted are foot soldiers while the architects of the blasts roam free.

Dawood is known to own homes in Dubai and Karachi and is supposed to be in pak-afghan border. Musharaff has long denied the existence of Dawood in Pakistan.
Tiger Menon, is in Dubai and has even opened a hotel with some Mumbai hotelier.
His brothers have surrendered and have been convicted even though they did not truly have thier hands into it.
Anees Ibrahim and some of his associates are still scott free in Pakistan.
Abu Salem's case is still in progress.
It took 14 years for justice to take it's course. For one of the biggest terrorist act in the financial capital, this is way too long.

Talking of which, the Mumbai riots case seem to have been forgotten and the victims of the riots have not been given any retributive justice. The Sri Krishna Comission was de-comissioned and the contents have been long forgotten.
The political nexus with the underworld has been ignored while some of the victims of the bollywood nexus have fallen victims to the political agendas. While Sanjay Dutt has been punished for posession of a firearm, Sarpotdar's case for possesion of explosives was dropped. Shiv Sena pramuk Bal Thackrey, the then Chief Minister Murli Monaohar Joshi and other prominent Shiv sainiks who were instrumental during the Mumbai riots have not even been booked.
The cases of bias by the police where they let go some of the hindus and turned blind eye on crimes happenig on muslims are still open. A lot of these were seen at the lower cadre officers. Some of the police officials and the customs officials have been convicted, a lot of them have been vindicated.

We, being the largest democracy, it is our duty to uphold the rights of the citizens. We need to make real effort to deport the terrorists like Dawood, Tiger Anees and the others so that justice can be served. The centre seems to be taking a lot less interest in dealing with UAE and the Pakistan to deport these people. We need to work with the Interpol to achieve these needs. There is a larger concern that they do not want to do this as a lot of political nexus with the underworld could surface.

As for now, it might seemed delayed but there has been some amount of justice served to the mumbaikars. No Remorse.

No mercy for what we are doing
No thought to even what we have done
We don't need to feel the sorrow
No remorse for the helpless one

War without end
No remorse No repent
We don't care what it meant
Another day Another death
Another sorrow Another breath
No remorse No repent
We don't care what it meant
Another day Another death
Another sorrow Another breath

Blood feeds the war machine
as it eats its way across the land
We don't need the feel the sorrow
No remorse is the one command
- Metallica